Manager Customer Contact Channels Travelling at NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi

Palmerston North City, Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

29 Jan, 26

Salary

219481.0

Posted On

31 Oct, 25

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Operational Leadership, Customer Service Delivery, Mentoring, Coaching, Stakeholder Engagement, Change Management, Continuous Improvement, Budget Management, Performance Monitoring, Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, Team Development, Data Analysis, Public Transport Knowledge, Regulated Environment Experience, Te Ao Māori Understanding

Industry

Government Administration

Description

Lead the operational management and optimisation of NZTA’s Customer Contact Channel for travellers. Drive continuous improvement and innovation in customer service delivery for millions of road users. Shape the future of customer experience across State Highways, RUC, Tolling, and Motu Move. Location: Wellington or Palmerston North Te Whiwhinga mahi | The opportunity As the Manager Customer Contact Channels – Travelling, you will lead the operational management and optimisation of NZTA’s Customer Contact Channel for travelling, ensuring alignment with the organisation’s vision to deliver essential services that enable customers to travel Aotearoa’s roads safely. This critical leadership role oversees 8.8 million annual interactions—1.3 million via the contact centre and 7.5 million over the counter—while driving high-quality, customer-focused services across multiple channels. The role will see you build and maintain strong relationships with strategic partners and operational teams, prepare for growth, and provide customer support for large-scale programmes, regulatory initiatives, and tactical improvements specific to travelling products and services. Success relies on fostering a trained, capable, and engaged workforce to support these services, while contributing to key strategic programmes such as the National Ticketing System (Motu Move), Te Toki Transport Services Integrated Delivery model, and government-driven initiatives impacting products like Road User Charges (RUC) and Tolling. In this role, your key responsibilities will be to: Provide strategic advice and support to the Head of Customer Assisted Channels, including insights on industry trends and customer strategy evolution. Lead relationship management across NZTA for key service offerings, including State Highways, Road User Charges (RUC), Tolling, and Motu Move. Strengthen operational relationships with external service providers, ensuring alignment with NZTA’s strategy and service principles. Ensure delivery of high-quality, customer-focused services across all channels supporting road travel products. Influence and collaborate with strategic stakeholders across the organisation to ensure the channel’s requirements—access, systems, processes, capability, and resources—are met. Empower, mentor, and develop your leadership team to deliver excellent customer service. Drive and embed continuous improvement initiatives, optimise resource use, and support strategic and government-driven programmes. Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, relationship management, and accountability within the team. Oversee business planning, resource management, and workforce planning for efficient, scalable service delivery. Champion change initiatives, oversee governance and performance monitoring, and ensure effective communication, engagement, and adoption of new projects. This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of customer contact for NZTA, delivering exceptional experiences and supporting the agency’s broader goals of service excellence and innovation. You will find out more about the role in the Position Description. We are seeking to appoint at a salary between $188,127 - $219,481 commensurate with skills and experience. Ko koe tēnei | About you To be successful in this role, you’ll bring: Proven operational leadership experience with success in leading large, nationally dispersed teams, ideally within public transport, government, or regulated contact centre environments. Deep understanding of customer service delivery and operational excellence in a contact centre environment. Demonstrated experience building an inclusive and high-performing leadership culture, with strong mentoring and coaching skills. Proven ability to deliver strategic outcomes in a customer contact centre or operational setting. Experience in designing and delivery of continuous improvement including shift to lower cost to serve channels. Effective management of large operational budgets in a public service or large organisation. Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with experience leading through change. Experience using reporting tools and dashboards to track performance and inform decision making. Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence and advise senior stakeholders. You will demonstrate knowledge of, or a willingness to gain an understanding of Te Ao Māori and promote tikanga and Te Reo Māori. You will also have knowledge of, or a willingness to gain an appreciation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) as it applies in the public service. Mō mātou | About Us Te Mahau – Customer and Services Our group delivers great transactional products and services through operational excellence and a customer focus. We support the effective operation of the land transport system by making transactional and backend services simple, easy to use, and effective for the user. We are committed to improving the experience of people who interact with Waka Kotahi and our services and products, driving efforts to assess and elevate areas where the customer experience can be optimised. The Customer Channels team delivers a unified, seamless, and customer-first experience across all assisted service platforms—contact centres and support networks—blending operational excellence with data-informed decision-making and continuous service innovation. Ka whiwhi koe i te aha | What you will get in return At NZTA Waka Kotahi, you’ll join a team committed to making a difference for people, places, and New Zealand. Competitive salary and benefits package. Flexible working arrangements, including remote/hybrid options (role dependent). 5 weeks annual leave and an Income Protection and Critical Illness Insurance scheme for all permanent employees. Find out more about our benefits here. Ready to take the next step in your career? We’d love to hear from you. Apply today and join our team who is going places. Me pēhea te tuku tono | How to apply: Please click apply to upload your CV and cover letter detailing your suitability for the role. Rā Katinga | Applications close: 16 November 2025 For further information, email: careers@nzta.govt.nz To be considered for this position you must have a legal right to live and work in New Zealand. Waka Kotahi is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We recognise the importance of diversity and inclusion and are committed to providing a working environment that embraces these values. Please let us know if you need any support or have any access requirements that will help you through the recruitment process. Please note that we may begin shortlisting as we receive applications. We encourage early applications as we may withdraw the advertising at any time. Ko wai mātou | About us At Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, it all starts with our people. The organisation's performance and success depends on the people who choose to make this a great place to work and make a difference for Aotearoa. Waka Kotahi has a strong future focus, understanding that new technologies and changing customer expectations mean the transport system we know today will not be the one we deliver in ten years time.

Responsibilities

Lead the operational management and optimisation of NZTA’s Customer Contact Channel for travellers, ensuring high-quality, customer-focused services. Build and maintain strong relationships with strategic partners and operational teams while driving continuous improvement initiatives.